John Zorn was born in New York city in 1953. Zorn played a variety of instruments before studying saxophone and composition at Webster College in St. Louis in the early 1970's. He developed an interest in jazz when he attended a concert given by trumpeter Jacques Coursil, who was teaching him French at the time.

Since 1974 he has been active on New York's Lower East Side, a leading representative of the "downtown" avant garde. During this time Zorn developed a compositional method in which he jots down diverse ideas and images - musical "moments" - on filing cards, which are then sorted and ordered to provide the composition's structure. This has led to his much discussed and performed "Game Pieces" including Cobra & Xu Feng.

In 1985 he made a commercial breakthrough with The Big Gundown, which interpreted Ennio Morricone's themes by deploying all kind of unlikely musicians. Since then Zorn has written film scores and cartoon soundtracks, and has composed several works for a variety of instrumentation. Zorn continues to collaborate with acclaimed musicians and is considered a master of making use of a recording studio as a compositional tool. Many of Zorn's compositions exist only in their recorded renditions, which are assembled "moment by moment" in the studio.

He was the founding member and saxophonist of one of his most celebrated groups "Naked City" which became his vehicle for skipping between jazz, surf rock and hardcore. In the mid-90s Zorn inaugurated Masada, for which he composed all of the music, to explore his fascination with Jewish history and music.

In 1991 Zorn produced Mr Bungles self titled debut & continues his relationship with various members of the band to this day

Since 1995, Zorn has been the executive producer of Tzadik, a record label he founded to give avant-garde and experimental music a forum. Zorn lives and performs primarily in New York City and tours with his groups and with other collaborators in many cities throughout the United States, Japan and Europe.